We hear ESM, or Enterprise Service Management banded about a lot these days and it means different things to different people for sure.
There are members of our team who have very distinct recollections of helping forward thinking companies exploring Enterprise Service Management (ESM) as far back as the 1990’s. Yes, even 30 years ago ESM was a thing, and it is still very much so today.
So if anyone tries to convince you that ESM is new, I’m afraid we’re here to spill the beans; it’s not. That said, something doesn’t have to be new and shiny for it to be a good thing.
ESM is a great idea and when pursued carefully and with deliberation, it can be move beyond being a good idea and into the realm of an amazing idea.
So what do we mean by ESM?
Our definition of ESM is simple, it’s applying the best or good practice from (typically) IT Service Management to other service-oriented areas of the company such as HR, Finance, Legal and so on.
To expand on that further, we include within that definition the idea of applying practices, value-streams, processes, systems, workflow platforms, documentation, job descriptions and anything else quite frankly; there is no limit to what could be ‘re-purposed’ when it comes to applying Service Management across the Enterprise (company).
Why is this a good idea?
As stated above, forward-thinking companies have been doing this successfully for the past 30 years. We have consultants in the team who recall examples, such as the Scandinavian bank who purchased and configured one of the leading ITSM workflow platforms at the time, specifically for the purposes of a Finance Service Desk.
This was certainly unusual (back then), and the company in question did not replace their existing IT Service Desk, but nevertheless the purchase of the ITSM workflow platform was solely for the Finance Service Desk and Service Management within the Finance function.
The company had identified a growing demand for questions, cases and requests for the finance function but they had no way of managing that increasing demand. So their immediate requirement was to control and manage the demand into a single contact centre (or Service Desk) but they soon then realised that they required additional practices such as Service Catalogue, Self-Service Portal, Service Demand Management, Service Capacity Management, and so on.
Without consciously realising it, the Finance area were taking on the same good old Service Management practices that their IT colleagues had been working on for years and they were yielding the same Service Delivery and Performance improvements. The Finance function had moved from a state that verged on chaotic to a state that was optimised and providing great value to all employees of the company by adopting a Service Management approach.
So there are various examples and takes on ESM depending on who you talk to, but in it's simplest form, it's about applying IT Service Management practices to those areas across the business that could benefit from it.
But let's be clear, this isnt just about Service Desks!
We have recently carried out an Enterprise-wide Service Management assessment for one of our long standing clients. Time and time again products and services were being sold that relied on multiple parts of the organisation to deliver them; Product Development, IT, Legal, Finance etc, who would all play a part in fulfilling the solutions being sold by the sales teams, yet would rarely be consulted until a deal had already been signed.. aggggh!
So in addition to uncovering areas of the business that could benefit from the obvious ones like Incident Management, Request Management, Problem Management, Service Level Management and Service Catalogue Management, what became abundantly clear very quickly, was the lack of Service Design, transition and governance across all areas and how the different departments were all working in silo's, with little consideration for other partnering departments and their key processes, or ensuring appropriate collaboration and sign-off from all those involved in new services, before they were sold, created and implemented for clients.
Uncovering these operational issues has now triggered an entire Operating Model transformation journey, with the client now creating an 'Enterprise Service Management Office', i.e a Service Management team and set of underpinning practices to govern all appropriate areas across the business, by taking the key learnings from the ITIL4 Framework.
In addition, to help glue this all together, our lead consultants have set up Communities of Practice, involving members from various departments (across the globe) getting together to talk about their values, issues, priorities etc. This has been hugely successful in breaking down silos and building the relationships and levels of understanding between different teams to get them working more closely.
But of course it doesnt need to be as significant as that, you could just be needing to improve how your HR team handles user requests and require some templated workflows to deal with them more efficiently, or to introduce a Live Chat service for the Facilities team.
In which case, why re-invent the wheel, when we have decades of tried and testing practices in IT that can be broadened to other areas across the Enterprise?
If you'd like to talk to us in more detail about this topic or understand how we can help you with it, please email us at hello@itsmpeople.co.uk
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